The Original Lists, and More First-Hand Accounts from the American Colonies
I was messing around online recently, just looking for interesting stuff, and came across The Original Lists. Or, more specifically (because I adore these ridiculously long old titles!):
The original lists of persons of quality; emigrants; religious exiles; political rebels; serving men sold for a term of years; apprentices; _children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations 1600-1700. With their ages, the localities where they formerly lived in the mother country, the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars.
Fantastic, isn’t it? Also - children stolen?? Maidens pressed? Not to mention the men sold for a term of years. Ugh.
The book, published in 1874, is a compilation of information from manuscripts in Her Majesty’s Public Record Office, England, edited and published by James Camden Hotten. From the contents, we can see that it contains:
Names of passengers from London in 1635
Names of passengers and soldiers (with rank) in 1631 & 1632
Patent Rolls & Patents granted to settlers in Virginia in 1626
Living and dead in Virginia in February 1623
Walloons & French Emigrants to Virginia
Inhabitants of Virginia
Accounts of the Summer Islands
Lists of convicted rebels from the Monmouth Rebellion
Tickets granted to emigrants from Barbados
Barbados Parish Registers
Additional lists of various passengers, ships, etc.
In addition, the Introduction contains the passenger list for the Mayflower and several other, smaller ships.
Having found this, I naturally had to poke around and see what other treasures I could find. A little digging led me to The Plymouth Scrap Book and the Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, Volumes I & 2 (Court Orders 1633-1640 & 1641-1651, respectively).
The Plymouth Scrap Book
According to the table of contents, the Plymouth Scrap Book “contains eleven deeds, two powers of attorney, fifty-seven inventories, forty-three bonds, three letters, eleven depositions, four wills and eleven writs.” Some of these documents are reproduced in photos of the originals, and everything is transcribed.
My favorite items in an inventory have to be these, among the otherwise mundane belongings of John Fish:
Two three years olds, two two years olds, and “some old things and some things forgotten.” So, four children and the contents of the junk drawer? Were these his children? If so, why are they listed as inventory? Were they the children of servants? There are no adult servants listed. And the children are too young to be servants themselves. Very puzzling.
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England
These records, compiled in 1855 and reprinted in 1968, contain the minutiae of daily life in Colonial Plymouth as seen through the lens of the court system. You can read in these pages about land transfers, neighborly disputes, wills, births, deaths, marriages, apprenticeships, and more.
I can imagine going through this book, in tandem with the ones above, and tracing a name through the voyage from England and through their daily life in the colonies, and writing a historical fiction novel based on their experiences. If I had that kind of creativity. Which I don’t. But someone should totally do this! Hire me, and I’ll help you get all the little details right!
